“Reproductive techno-horror” is a burgeoning genre on screen

STORIES ABOUT reproductive technology lend themselves to two genres. One is comedy. In films such as “Delivery Man”, artificial insemination is the premise for a farce: as reproduction happens in sterile Petri dishes, not between the sheets, there is room for mishaps involving multiple babies and mixed-up identities. Most tales of this kind end happily, with sperm donors embracing the strangers they helped to create.

The other genre, meanwhile, is horror. That is partly because the world of fertility treatment overlaps with horror tropes. It involves tools—speculums, needles—which resemble instruments of torture and are wielded in intrusive, intimate ways. In these stories the protagonists have to take medicine that makes their bodies feel alien, alters their judgment or brings on strange visions. If the treatment is successful, it results in pregnancy and childbirth, which involve plenty of gore and suffering.

In her book “Women, Monstrosity and Horror Film”, Erin Harrington refers to such stories as “reproductive techno-horror”. In these tales “anxieties around the intersections of technology, women’s bodies and reproduction emerge, clash and bleed out.” It is a swelling genre. “False Positive” (2021) follows a woman (played by Ilana Glazer) who, after becoming pregnant, begins to suspect her fertility doctor of nefarious activities. “Dead Ringers”, a remake of David Cronenberg’s film of 1988, was released on Prime Video on April 21st (pictured, top and below). The mini-series revolves around twin sisters and gynaecologists, Elliot and Beverly Mantle (both played by Rachel Weisz), as they open their own birthing centre and research laboratory. Ella (Dianna Agron), the protagonist of “Clock”, a film released on Hulu and Disney+ on April 28th, joins a clinical trial in hopes of remedying her lack of interest in child-rearing.

Film-makers explored concerns about the idea of growing life outside the human body even before fertility treatment became widely available. (The “assisted reproductive technology” market is expected to be worth more than $50bn globally by 2030.) In 1976, two years before the first baby conceived via in vitro fertilisation was born, the film “Embryo” expressed fears about artificial uteruses.

Researchers in America unveiled a “Biobag” in 2017, a means to gestate sheep fetuses outside the womb, and described the technology’s potential to help extremely premature infants. In “Dead Ringers”, Elliot also uses lambs to hone her design for artificial wombs. She, too, hopes to help premature babies, but soon moves on to growing human embryos in them. Elliot’s research is intended to be a boon to women, and it is one. The problem is that she is a renegade, creating life without giving much thought to the ethical or legal consequences. (One of the human babies she cultivates was created without a parent’s consent.)

“False Positive” and “Clock” (pictured, below) also express concern at the flouting of rules and the scientific method. In both films, part of the problem is that the treatment is experimental (ie, untested). In “False Positive” Dr Hindle (Pierce Brosnan) uses his “own technique” for insemination. In “Clock” a combination of newly developed synthetic hormones, cognitive-behavioural therapy and a peculiar uterine device is supposed to “fix” Ella’s “broken” maternal instinct and help her get pregnant. When she confronts her doctor about the treatment’s dreadful side-effects, she is told that what she is experiencing is “the most natural thing in the world”.

By virtue of taking reproduction as their theme, these stories explore a nexus of ideas. One is how access to health care is determined by race and class. Part of Beverly’s motivation for opening a birthing centre is her outrage at the way women, particularly African-American mothers, are treated. She wants the facility to be accessible, and not “only for incredibly wealthy and privileged women”. Another is heritage, and humans’ urge to pass on their DNA. Tellingly, both the Mantles’ centre and the medical facility Ella visits use the infinity sign as their logo; Ella’s father (Saul Rubinek) puts pressure on her to procreate so that the family line does not end with her.

Whether and how to have children is an enduring subject, but one made more relevant by the Supreme Court’s decision to erase the constitutional right to abortion in America. In all three of these stories, characters lose control over their bodies. In “False Positive” and “Clock”, the women’s ordeals are directly correlated to their ability and desire to have offspring. “Dead Ringers” scrutinises the politics of birth: a journalist asks the Mantles whether their work may in fact end up restricting women’s freedom, for “the earlier life is viable outside of the womb, the more powerful the anti-abortion movement’s argument is.” For film-makers looking to comment on the issues of the day, reproductive techno-horror may be the perfect vessel. ■